


ways to fall

by padawin



Series: ways to love [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining, Shiro is Tired, based on some personal experience, hardcore pining, i can't believe those are tags omg, i don't know how to tag, keith is astrophysics, lance is studying marine biology, mentioned pidge - Freeform, not the pining but the hot chocolate, shiro is also astrophysics i guess, they're oblivious morons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 23:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11816319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padawin/pseuds/padawin
Summary: There were many ways to be in love with someone.Sometimes it was painful. [...] Sometimes, though, being in love was good, happy, wonderful. [...]Well, and sometimes, being in love meant crossing the entire campus to get a devastatingly horrible hot chocolate every day at a place near the science building you had maths at only once a week because you knew this other guy who probably studied something scientific and hung out everyday at the same table near the awful little cafeteria where that awful hot chocolate was given away for a price that thankfully matched the quality, would be there.





	ways to fall

**Author's Note:**

> The pining is strong with this one
> 
> It's 4am, it was around 2am when I decided to write and edit this. Why, my brain asks, and I don't have an answer.
> 
> Anyway, have whatever this is

There were many ways to be in love with someone.

Sometimes it was painful. Sometimes you were in love with someone you couldn’t have, someone you couldn’t let go. You had to watch them date others, had to watch them be happy with someone else, never taking a glance back to you. And sometimes they were so so close to you, but just out of reach.

Sometimes, though, being in love was good, happy, wonderful. Sometimes it got reciprocated. Sometimes it started with a spark and ended up with someone holding your hand for the rest of your life and never letting go. Sometimes it lasted forever. And if it did, you could count yourself lucky.

Well, and sometimes, being in love meant crossing the entire campus to get a devastatingly horrible hot chocolate every day at a place near the science building you had maths at only once a week because you knew this other guy who probably studied something scientific and hung out everyday at the same table near the awful little cafeteria where that awful hot chocolate was given away for a price that thankfully matched the quality, would be there.  

And then you sat down, near that guy, at the same table as everyday for 20 minutes while you sipped on your gross hot beverage and tried not to recoil at the watery taste. Watching pretty eyes sparkle in the sunlight that sometimes shone through the wide windows of the entrance hall of the building. Watching sharp-looking teeth bite on a hairtie while pale quick fingers pushed back jet-black smooth-looking hair and tied it together. Watching it be of little use if the guy had the weirdest haircut  -that Lance swore was a mullet, an actual freaking mullet-, with bangs that couldn’t be held back by a simple ponytail. Yet, you watched as the guy satisfied himself with that simple attempt and hunched back over whatever those textbooks were about, scribbling notes down onto a notepad, which Lance knew had a galaxy-printed cover that he loved the aesthetic of. Watching a light _adorable_ pout form on those pretty lips, bitten red by those same teeth he had gotten a glimpse from earlier.

Sometimes being in love meant ogling a stranger -who you named _The Guy-_ from afar everyday at a place you had no business at except on the days you _had_ business at in that place, math classes to be exact, thigh bouncing with excitement just from looking, fingers twitching, drumming on the table’s surface as you contemplated over wasting the rest of your 20 minutes before you had to leave or get up, walk over and actually _talk_ to _The Guy._

This was Lance’s life now. Becoming the stalker of a guy who probably didn’t even know he existed because he was _so_ damn pretty, even in those obviously old, oversized hoodies and way too tight black skinny jeans -Christ, did his legs even have proper blood circulation?-, so obviously _The Guy_ must have been used to weirdos like Lance who went out of their way to ogle at him, daily.

Sometimes, being in love was both agonising and fun, _bittersweet_ . Because Lance got to see a beautiful view everyday and had the chance to get to know someone solely from watching them, learning their behaviour. When _The Guy_ studied his textbooks while sometimes scribbling down on the notepad while typing away on that small laptop covered in stickers of planets and stars - _at the same time_ one might add, and Lance was all the more delighted to find out his little crush was ambidextrous. Or when _The Guy_ would allow himself a break and would just sit there, at the same spot, looking down at his phone, scrolling through whatever website Lance couldn’t see from so far away, occasionally grinning or stifling a sudden laugh with a quick hand, as if embarrassed of breaking the hall’s silence with the laugh which Lance knew was beautiful, raspy. Lance had the feeling it was _rusty_ most of all and he wished he could be the one to bring it to more frequent use.

Lance had been in love so often, he liked to believe he was experienced in all ways. Heartbreak, relationships, hook-ups, casual crushes. But with _The Guy_ Lance surprised himself by finding an entirely new way of falling in love and being in love.

Because, how did you fall in love with someone who you literally never _ever_ had spoken a word to (Not directly, at least. The several times Lance mouthed _marry me_ to the stranger, knowing well that those words would never reach him, didn’t count)? How did you fall in love with someone solely by watching them everyday for 20 minutes, just by learning their little quirks and habits and facial expressions while they were so absorbed in themselves and whatever they were doing that they were being completely themselves? _The Guy_ could have been a complete arsehole, through and through, and Lance would have no idea. So, sometimes, when he got up after 20 minutes of ogling, giving himself a ten-second-prep talk before chickening out and going his way back to his next lecture across campus, Lance was glad he did (he’d never thought the day would come he was _glad_ for being a coward), because that meant tomorrow he could come back to this spot at exactly 12am. Buy a medicore hot-chocolate and continue on staring dreamingly at a pretty boy and get his daily fill of _The Guy_. And maybe, in twenty years, when Lance was married and had kids and was working a steady job he’d think back to his university days and fondly remember how his younger, dumber self would go out of his way everyday to look at a pretty stranger. And he would sip his coffee and laugh at himself and wonder what that boy was doing nowadays and hope that he was just as happy as Lance hopefully would be in twenty years.

So, maybe it was for the better that Lance was yet again getting up, suffering through the last remaining bit of bitter chunky chocolate powder gathering at the bottom of his paper cup, and decided that today was not the day he felt courageous enough to talk to _The Guy_ and instead he would just turn around and walk back across the campus to his next lecture, unseen and unrecognised and immemorable-

“Lance?”

Lance stopped in his tracks and nearly crumbled the paper cup in his hand when he heard a familiar voice calling out for him, accompanied by a surprised but hearty laugh.

“Is that you? What are you doing here?” Takashi Shirogane, more commonly known as Shiro by most, well, literally everyone, was probably the nicest guy Lance had ever met. He had the patience of a saint and yet at the same time didn’t. It really depended on the person, Lance being one of those. Because, when you needed help with the material Shiro would gladly help you out and patiently listen to what you didn’t understand and even more patiently explain it to you until you did. But Shiro would groan and silently suffer whenever their physics professor opened his mouth to say something, which was very unfortunate when he was the _professor_ _giving a lecture_ , where, as commonly known, _he’d talk a lot._ Shiro had to sit through those lectures as he was tutoring them and had to stay up to date, and Shiro actually liked physics, that much was obvious, but Lance wondered if there was anything in the world that he hated more than Professor Slav’s lectures. Maybe stepping on a lego. … No, not even that.

Anyway, enough of gorgeous muscular Shiro and back to trying to explain his presence here.

“I am….” Lance swallowed hard, voice trailing off as he turned around and noticed who was standing beside Shiro.

 _The Guy_. Of course Shiro had to, somehow, be friends with the guy Lance had been pining after for nearly an entire semester now. Of fucking course.

“I am here because of this delicious hot chocolate. Can’t function without my daily dose.” He lied, eyes fixed to Shiro’s tensely lest they would trail over to the _gorgeous_ boy standing beside and slightly behind Shiro. If Lance let his gaze fall on that boy they’d stay glued there. Lance knew that for certain and while he let his gaze stay on _The Guy_ every day for 20 minutes there was a fundamental difference in amount of creepiness between staring at someone from afar and openly staring at them when they were standing five feet away from you.

“ _That_ chocolate?”, Shiro asked with a disbelieving look, jerking with his chin to the cafeteria Lance had, indeed, bought this medicore awful chocolate from. Lance swallowed. Shit, he had hoped Shiro wouldn’t question it or know just how awful that was.

“...Yes.” What else could Lance have said? _No, I don’t come here to buy hot chocolate every because of it’s quality, cus to be honest it is the worst chocolate I have ever had in my entire life, I come here to daily drool over Mr. Other-worldly-beautiful over there, who, apparently, is someone you know._ “You should really give it a try, it’s actually really good-” If it were meant to taste like cardboard.

“Are you joking? I’d rather drink muddy water from a puddle outside than that shit.”

Lance knew he would regret it but upon hearing that voice, low and deep, rough just like his shy laugh, his eyes twitched over to _The Guy_ and their eyes met. For the first time Lance had the opportunity to look at those eyes, properly, memorise their colour which was dark as Lance had seen from afar, but now he recognised their colour as a grey-ish blue with a hint of violet and _they looked like galaxies, Lance was in deep if he was spouting poetry now._ “Well, _I_ think it tastes divine.” Lance defended, and honestly, he would have loved to just slap some sense into himself because _why_ exactly was he insisting on that chocolate’s quality now if the truth was very obvious? Was he really doing this just because he sensed the tension, sensed how obvious it was that _The Guy_ would continue insisting on his opinion until Lance agreed and Lance would gladly bicker until the end of days if it meant that he was gifted with hearing more of his beautiful voice? The answer was yes and Lance was pathetic.

“Whatever, if you want to expose your poor taste buds to this poison.”

“ _Keith,_ don’t be rude.”, Shiro spoke up and, unknowingly, had just given Lance both his doom and something so wonderful it’d haunt him in his dreams. A name. He had just put a name to Lance’s daydream guy and had just turned this shallow crush into something 50% more serious.

 _Keith_ just rolled his eyes at Shiro’s warning but shrugged and buried his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie. Lance’s eyes followed the motion and finally he was able to read the letters printed across the front of the garment, something Lance hadn’t been able to decipher from across the hallway. _Vrepit Stahp._ O sweet Jesus-

“I can’t believe you’re Voltron meme trash.” Lance wished he could bite his tongue off and stay mute for the rest of his life.

“ _Excuse_ me?” Keith looked utterly devastated about Lance’s words and Lance couldn’t help but think, god, what an adorable o-shape his mouth made when he gasped like that. “I’ll have you know Voltron is a pretty good remake and the best that  you will ever watch.”

“It was actually really bad.” Why couldn’t Lance shut up?

Keith’s eyes narrowed and his shoulders hunched forward a little. “Why can’t you love yourself?”

“ _Okay,_ look at the time-” Shiro looked at his watch as if there weren’t two clocks hanging on opposite walls for everyone to check the time whenever they needed. “Keith, my and your next lecture is starting in three minutes and we both need to get to the math building. Lance, I think you need to get across campus to the main building next, don’t you?”

“Well, yes-”

“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow in physics!” And with that Shiro grabbed Keith by the arm and dragged him away, giving Lance an uneasy smile over his shoulder as they left. Keith was viciously struggling against the hold but it was hard if you were stumbling over your own feet and when _Shiro_ was the one leading you away.

“ _Takashi,_ I can walk by myself-” “Hush, we need to hurry.

Lance was left behind, wondering to himself how much the universe hated him and how annoyed Hunk would have if he spent the entire lunch break wailing about how his first conversation with _The Guy,_ now Keith, had gone absolutely horrible. The only way this could have gone any worse was if a zombie apocalypse broke out and they had to fight their way through survival. Yeah, that would have been the _only_ way for his day to be even shittier than it was already. And it was only 12.32am.

 

\--

 

“O my god, _let go_ !” Finally, Keith was able to free himself from the cage that was Shiro’s right hand curled around his upper arm. He stumbled a little but Shiro slowed down his pace and gave Keith the chance to recover. “Why is _The Guy_ such an-”

“Keith, _The Guy_ -” Shiro lifted his hand to to gesture quotation marks in the air. “,has a name now, and he’s Lance. I can’t believe you had a crush on Lance, why didn’t you tell me? I could have introduced you!”

Keith gave him a glare. “Well, maybe that’s because I didn’t _know_ he was Lance and that you knew him!” He gave an exasperated breath. “Or maybe it’s just because you’re fucking embarrassing.” Or maybe it’s because Keith knew that he would fuck up their first interaction and had therefore avoided it as much as he could. There was a reason why Keith had spent an entire semester just staring and daydreaming at _The Guy_ -Keith smiled to himself when he remembered he knew his name now, _Lance_ \- and hadn’t even tried to talk to him even though they shared two classes together. Keith was very sure that _Lance_ didn’t even know they shared two classes. He might be a goofball whenever Keith spotted him outside of classes but he was way smarter than people expected. He paid attention to his lectures and studied a lot. Sometimes Keith would get a book in the early morning from the library and notice Lance sitting at one of the tables, nose buried in a text book about marine biology, and when Keith came back at the end of the day, Lance would still be there. He worked hard and Keith very much admired that.

“I might be embarrassing, but at least you are one step closer than you were half a year ago. At least now you can actually talk to him without it being weird. I give you full permission to use me as an excuse and a connection to talk to him.”

God, why was Shiro like this? Why did he have to be so supportive? All Keith wanted was to avoid conflict and having a crush on someone you didn’t actually know _was_ conflict.

Because how could you fall in love with someone solely by observing them for a semester, three times a week for two hours? Was that even possible when Keith had never exchanged a word with him before? Could you even fall in love with someone you only knew over watching and memorising little quirks and habits? Watching how his brows would furrow when the professor said something particularly complicated? Watching him bite and nibble on the end of the pen, something that should be so gross, something that certainly made Keith not ever want to borrow a pencil from him, but something that made him look strangely adorable. And how, once in a while, he would scratch his head with the pointy part of the pen and shift in his seat, scribbling as many notes as he could while listening. Sometimes he would lean over and copy whatever it was Pidge, one of their mutual friends, had noted down herself. Only when she wasn’t looking, though, because apparently Pidge wasn’t a fan of people not taking their own notes. Pidge and Lance were really good friends even if their friendship was mostly based on mocking and ridiculing each other. It was a nice, healthy, and strong bond they had.

There was so much you could learn from just watching someone. But, for Keith it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. And yet he was too much of a coward, still, to go after it.

“Ugh, c’mon, let’s just go to the lecture.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, that's it, hope you had a bit of a laugh, or at least could laugh a little at how dumb these two boys are. I'm going to bed now.


End file.
